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Installed a copy of Boom Recorder on my MacBook Pro.  I couldn't get it to launch, without getting the "spinning beachball" 5 seconds after I launch it.  As it turns out, Boom Recorder will lunch with the Mixer (Onix 1620) only if the mixer is plugged into a 110 power.  BR doesn't work if the mixer is being powered via the 12vdc option that I have.

Anyone else have this issue?  It's gotta be a weird issue where the FireWire card simply just doesn't work nice with the 12vdc?

weird..

-Richard

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Borg -

I would suspect that the 12vdc mod is most likely having an adverse affect on the firewire card....

But I don't have a clue as how to measure the microvoltage and data content of a firewire port...

From a normal troubleshooting perspective, though, that seems to be the variable....

Such a mod, although attractive to the user, is probably not supported or recommended by Mackie in any way.

BR works perfectly with my Onyx 1620 AND my Onyx 1640 on a G4 Macbook with only 1G of RAM.

The last time - several 20 minute takes with full 16tracks.

(Both are up for sale pretty soon!)

Mike Filosa, CAS

Atlanta

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Richard,

Typically, if BR does not see the external FW interface (in your case the Mackie) it will simply default to the onboard mic and 2-track L/R recording.  It must see your device to some degree, but perhaps your new Mac does not like the strength or clarity of signal from the Mackie when in DC mode.  Did your old Mac work with the same Mackie?  Have you powered it from a 12v supply offering ample power, or are you powering it from a battery?

If this is a brand new mod for you, I would ask if the engineer if the DC mod is also powering the FW option, which I suspect has its very own power supply.  Or if it is powering the FW optional card, perhaps it's only supplying enough power to confuse the Mac and BR.

Robert

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First.. Thanks too all you who replied! Thank you.

@ graham - I've tried every way I can do it..

@ Richard Lightstone - I've re-installed 3 times.. Looked for drivers on the Mackie site, there are simply none for OSX only windows.

@ ptalsky - I called VOS early on, he's been a huge help and very responsive.  But the problem I'm afraid is NOT BR.  It hangs the computer when it's 12VDC, but works on 110vac.. I can't see any other thing except a hardware issue with the Mackie.

@ Philip Perkins - tried 3 different FW cables now.

@ rpsharman - I didn't have an older Mac.. I bought a Mackie w/fw and the mod from Forest from another Mixer who sold it too me., then just bought BR to 'play around with it'.

Either way.. I can see the Onix Firwire in the settings.  But when I launch BR, it goes into a "spinning beach ball of death" if the mixer is being powered by 12vdc.  Works 100% if the mixer is being powered 110vac.

Weird!

-Richard

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I'm going to guess that once you are on 12volt, the Mackie does not send enough power to the FW input for the Mac and BR to see it.

Here's something to try. When you are a.c. powered look at BR and "Preferences", "Audio". What does the "device" box and the "data source" say. It should see the Mackie.

Then put the Mackie on 12 volt and see what BR sees.

One question, once you are on 12V, how are you powering your Mac?

RL

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Either way.. I can see the Onix Firwire in the settings.

You can see the "Onix Firwire" (that's all-new technology :)  in WHICH settings?  The Audio Midi Setup Utility?  The Sound System Preferences?  And this is when the Mackie is on 12V?

Have you tried using the Onyx with a different audio software?  If you can get the Onyx/12V to work with another Core Audio software, then the FW in the Mackie might be functioning OK.

One thought I had is wondering what would happen if you put a powered Firewire hub between the Mac and the Mackie.

Just a shot in the dark, really.  But maybe having something between the two could provide some sort of power isolation.

Brian

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What an odd problem...

Two more things to try: (and I'm truly just guessing here, but it can't hurt)

The first (probably stupid/been tried) suggestion:

Since Boom Recorder and the Onyx are reliant upon the  CoreAudio API to interface, you might try starting the Onyx on 12 volt power, then opening Audio MIDI setup (Apps->Utilities) and System Profiler (Apple Menu->"About this Mac"->"More Info"). This gives you a little more information than the pref panels.

Unfortunately, the holy grail of firewire diagnostics isn't installed by default. It is possible to build and install "fwutil" from the Xcode set, if you have it on your mac. It would be able to tell you almost anything. This functions in a similar way to drutil. Open terminal, type "drutil", and it shows all the commands that can be used. "drutil getconfig" will tell you more about your combo/super drive than you ever wanted to know.

You shouldn't have to dive that deep to fix the problem though...

The second (probably equally dubious) suggestion:

Make sure the firewire option card in the Onyx is as it should be. The ribbon cable should be seated all the way, and free of major kinks.

If you are willing, take the grille/cover off the option card. Smell it (seriously), it can tell you a lot, and burned PCBs have a distinct odor.  Look at the chip(s) (probably square) closest to the firewire ports, and with direct traces from the ports. One should say NEC/TI/IntellaSys, though it could say something else. I've never disassembled an Onyx board. Take a really (loupe?) close look at the chip(s) and make sure that nothing looks wrong, and that the traces are intact. A slight undervoltage from a 12 volt supply might manifest itself here when a 120 v supply night not.

Firewire controller chips can sometimes fry easily, and Apple has had problems in the past with bad host chipsets messing up peripheral sets. At the studio I used to work at, I had a cute, expensive stack of 6 firewire bridge boards from external hard drives, and another 4 from external firewire CD burners, all blown by my bosses. I never blew a bridge chip, just a few caps on a firewire PCI card, which is its own story. Apple was part of the issue, and 'hot swap' mistakes were the rest. I used to have a picture of a bridge chip with a gouge blown out of it and a pin completely missing. It escapes me though.

You obviously don't have a completely fried chipset, but it could still be a hardware glitch. I guess you could try someone else's computer to rule out an issue there...

I like Brian's idea of experimenting with a firewire hub. It might narrow things down a little.

I hope I've helped a little instead of wasting time. Good luck, and do share if you find a solution.

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